I will be repainting the valve covers on my GTA.

Would the Spruce nickel lacquer be the correct paint to use?

I want the paint to be heat and (somewhat) chemical resistant. It seems they don’t make the enamel version anymore. It only comes in lacquer only.

Or, should I just use a Duplicolor high heat aluminum/clearcoat paint instead?

 

To the top.

 

It was created for valve covers, so I'd think its lacquer formulation would be fine under the hood. But if it's lacquer, then it probably can't be shipped to CA.

That color was created for Corvette magnesium valve covers, but why somebody approved it as such is beyond me. Pretty sure the label says that in some way or another, claiming to be the factory color, but it's not really. C4 owners have used it and have been happy with the results, I think some 3rdgenners too, but I think it's just because the valve covers look good again, instead of old, tired and ugly.

It might be a decent match for the earlier smooth C3 and C4 valve covers, but it's definitely not a match to the later C4 cast finish covers. But there are people who'll swear it matches, most likely just because they're told it's "correct," even though their own eyes show them differently.

Will it look bad? No. Will it look "right?" Doubtful. You'll probably be better off trying to find a match that you like, or the actual 3rdgen color, if it's that important and able to be found.

 

Thanks for the reply. I’ll just return it (eBay seller) and get my money back and then get it color matched at a paint store. I thought I could do it the easy way since I read about the Seymour Spruce spray paint on one of the Corvette forums. Luckily, I have one valve cover that still has the original paint. My original valve covers were powder coated many years ago, but I never was happy with the color. This time, I’m going to strip them and paint them in the correct color.